Mikhail Shishkin: 3 books

The author is a frequent Nobel Prize candidate The only Russian to win all three of that country's major literary awards. Wrote editorials for the Guardian during the Ukraine-Russia crisis in spring 2014 Consulted with German Foreign Minister on dealing with Russia in spring 2014

Picture two people, young and in love. Picture them being separated from one another. Picture them keeping their love alive through letters. So far, so simple. Now imagine they've not just been separated geographically, but also historically. Imagine that their love and letters now defy time...

Set at the beginning of the nineteenth century, before the ideal of industrious modern man, when idleness was still looked upon by Russia's serf-owning rural gentry as a plausible and worthy goal, there was Oblomov. Indolent, inattentive, incurious, given to daydreaming and procrastination—indeed,...